Creating a Culture of General Education Assessment Erwin J. Wong, Ph.D. Dean for Academic Programs and Instruction Francisca C. Campos Assistant Professor, Business Management Ralph Buxton Associate Director of Financial Aid Borough of Manhattan Community College City University of New York Introduction Most everyone is familiar with the myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was an ancient king who for an offence to the gods was blinded and then condemned for an eternity to try and roll a boulder up to the top of a steep hill. Each time he reached the summit, the boulder would roll of its own weight back to the bottom, whereupon Sisyphus would begin laboriously rolling the boulder up the hill again. Enhance this image and imagine Sisyphus straining to pull several boulders up the hill with a net. As he jerks and pulls his heavy load, the cords in the net are snapping and when he reaches the top, all the boulders roll back down the hill. As we at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) have attempted to create a culture of general education assessment on our campus, it has felt at times as though we were following Sisyphus’s well-worn path. There were many times when we thought we had finally reached the summit, only to see that our boulders had rolled back to the bottom of the hill once more. Of course, the Sisyphean analogy can be carried only so far. However much we felt like blind Sisyphus as we faced this challenge, we have been able to see that our labors of the past several years, while certainly not finished, have been by no means futile. Our story begins in a meeting of the College’s Provost with the Dean for Academic Programs and Instruction one late afternoon in the spring of 2002. The College was attempting to come to grips with the new and revised edition of Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education published that previous January by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. This document sets forth 14 standards an institution of higher education must meet for accreditation. The most notable change from earlier editions is an increased emphasis on the role assessment must play in improving teaching and learning, thereby ensuring institutional effectiveness. Indeed, assessment processes are seen as essential tools meant to inform institutional planning at every level and help the institution better achieve its primary purpose as articulated in its mission and goals. Further, while the Commission recognizes that significant effort will be necessary to bring about the “cultural change” required with this additional emphasis on assessment, the College knew without a doubt that it would be expected to make this effort.